UPDATE ON THE OKLA DA and Felony Charges filed

[Okiegal123]

AGAINST THE WOMAN WHO FILED A COMPLAINT AGAINST A OKLAHOMA HIGHWAY PATROL OFFICER.

TULSA WORLD NEWSPAPER RELEASED ANOTHER ARTICLE ON THE SITUATION AND BELOW IS THE WEBSITE TO VIEW THE ARTICLE.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070925_1_A1_spanc26254



Extradition bid halted; faulty paperwork cited

by: RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer
9/25/2007

Oklahoma documents seeking to extradite a Louisiana woman charged with perjury have been withdrawn because they are "factually inaccurate," the Louisiana Attorney General's Office said Monday.

Gov. Brad Henry approved an extradition requisition last month for Latisha White of Alexandria, La., who faces the felony charge in Carter County.

Prosecutors there say White, 33, "intentionally" lied when she wrote in an Oklahoma Department of Public Safety complaint that Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Rocky Northcutt uttered numerous profanities at her during a Sept. 3, 2006, traffic stop of her sister, records show.

However, Mimi Hunley of the Louisiana State Attorney General's Office said Monday that Carter County District Attorney Craig Ladd's application for requisition contained errors.

White's complaint to the Department of Public Safety wasn't sworn to and notarized in Carter County, as Ladd alleges, Hunley said.

Documents show that White's complaint was written Sept. 11, 2006, in Rapides Parish, La., Hunley said.

"Ms. White could not have sworn out this complaint in Oklahoma on Sept. 11, 2006, and therefore never fled from Oklahoma," Hunley wrote in an e-mail to the Tulsa World. "Legally speaking, that meant Ms. White is not a fugitive."

Hunley, an assistant attorney general, processes extradition requests and governor's warrants for the state of Louisiana, she said.

"Factually, it's inaccurate," Hunley said Monday in a telephone interview. "You can't get around the wording that she was in Oklahoma on Sept. 11, 2006, for this complaint and thereafter fled. It's inaccurate. It's legally insufficient."

Unable to approve Ladd's application for an extradition warrant from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Hunley made the offices of Ladd and Henry aware of the insufficiency. Ladd and Henry said they would withdraw their extradition paperwork.

Ladd said Monday that he likely wouldn't restart the extradition process.

"I don't really want to comment on it," he said in a telephone interview. "I don't want to throw any fuel onto the fire."

Chris J. Roy Sr., who represents White in a civil suit against Northcutt in Louisiana, said Monday in a phone interview, "What he (Ladd) did is worse that what he's saying Tisha did."

Ladd said OHP in-car videotape evidence supports Northcutt, 46. The prosecutor added that he acted after White rejected a deferred prosecution agreement.

An Oklahoma native, White and members of her family had left a rodeo arena in Overbrook, Okla., the evening of Sept. 3, 2006. White's vehicle was following Knight's on U.S. 77 because the lights on Knight's horse trailer reportedly weren't working.

White charges in her complaint that Northcutt shouted several expletives at her because her vehicle pulled behind the trooper's.

Ladd has said the recording of the traffic stop includes audio on which no expletives can be heard. Lance McCrary, a Muskogee lawyer who represents White in the criminal case, said the traffic video is flawed and contains "skips."

McCrary challenged Northcutt last week to submit to a lie detector test. In her formal complaint, White offers to take a polygraph examination.

McCrary wrote in an e-mail to the Tulsa World: "Will Trooper Northcutt present himself to a lie detector test by a trained a FBI trained and certified test instructor at a neutral state jurisdiction with a guarantee that my client will not be arrested or extradited?"

He continued: "The reason we request these measures is because law enforcement often times requests lie detector tests (turnabout is fair play), and the District Attorney's Office has already expressed that they will seek no bond for Ms. White, which means that she will be incarcerated until her trial is completed. The trial process can sometimes take up to a year or more."

Gary James, an attorney for the Oklahoma State Troopers Association, wasn't immediately available for comment.

Northcutt, who was wounded in the line of duty in 1998, has received OHP and National Trooper of the Year awards. He's been in the OHP since July 1991.